Legio X Gemina

Legio
X
Gemina: one of the Roman legions. Its name means 'the twin
legion'.

With the seventh,
eighth,
and ninth
legions, the Tenth was among the oldest units of the imperial Roman
army.
They were with Julius
Caesar when he invaded Gaul in 58 BCE and the Roman commander
mentions
the tenth legion in his accounts of an encounter with the Germanic
leader
Ariovistus (where Caesar states that he always trusted this unit
completely).
The soldiers of the tenth legion are also mentioned in the battle
against the Nervians in 57 (where they saved the day), the invasion
of Britain in the summer of 55 (where the standard bearer of the Tenth
played a heroic role), and the siege of Gergovia in 52. The soldiers
must
have taken part in many other engagements as well. It is possible that
the tenth legion was already called Equestris ('mounted'),
because
Caesar describes how he employed the soldiers as cavalry.

In the civil war against Caesar's fellow-triumvir
Pompey, the Tenth fought in Hispania in the battle of Ilerda (summer
49).
In the spring of 48, the soldiers of this unit served at Dyrrhachium.
It was present in the battle
of Pharsalus
(9 August 48), and although the soldiers were sent back to Italy after
the battle to be pensioned off, they also participated in Caesar's
African
campaign in 46. Finally, the tenth legion was present at Munda in
Andalusia
(17 March 45). On their way back, the veterans finally received land at
Narbo
Martius in southern Gaul.

On 15 March 44, Caesar was assassinated and a new civil war
broke out.
In the first round, Caesar's relative Octavian demanded a share in the
leadership of the Caesarian party, in the second round Octavian, Marc
Antony
and Lepidus (the Second
Triumvirate) attacked the assassins, Brutus
and Cassius. To this end, the tenth legion Equestris was reconstituted
by Lepidus (in the winter of 44/43).

In 42, the refounded tenth legion fought for the triumvirs in the battle
of Philippi, where the opponents of the Caesarian party were
defeated.
After their victory, veterans were settled at Cremona in northern
Italy.

The Tenth was now transferred to the East and participated in
Marc Antony's
war against the Parthian
empire and his invasion of Armenia
(36-34). In these years, the relations between Octavian and Marc Antony
deteriorated, and this culminated in Antony's ill-fated Actium
campaign
(31), where Octavian defeated his fellow-triumvir. The tenth legion was
among the troops that surrendered to the new sole ruler of the empire.

Inscription from Mérida
(Spain), mentioning a soldier of X Gemina

Octavian settled veterans at Patras. However, the Tenth revolted and
was punished: it lost its prestigious name Equestris. Veterans
from
other legions were added to the unit, and it was from now on called X
Gemina
('the twin legion'). Octavian, now known as the emperor Augustus,
sent the Tenth to Petavonium in Hispania Tarraconensis (modern Rosinos
de Vidriales).

After a stay of almost a century in Hispania Tarraconensis, the tenth
'twin' legion was sent to Carnuntum in Pannonia, a bit east of modern
Vienna.
The precise year of the transfer is not known, but 63 (or a bit
earlier)
is a good guess, because in that year, XV
Apollinaris left Carnuntum and went to the east to fight in Corbulo's
war against the Parthians.

During the brief reign of the emperor Galba
(68-69), the Tenth was transferred back to Hispania - something the
soldiers
must have appreciated. A recently created legion, VII
Galbiana, was to be the new garrison of Carnuntum.

After they had restored order, they were ordered to garrison
the Hunerberg,
a hilltop east of Noviomagus
(modern Nijmegen). Here, they guarded the Batavians. The soldiers of
the
Tenth must have hated the cold and wet country of the Lower Rhine that
was to remain their home for a generation.

Tombstone of
a legionary from Amphipolis (text;
Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen)

The fortress on the Hunerberg (which has been excavated) is not the
only archaeological site connected to X Gemina. A country estate near
Nijmegen
called De
Holdeurn was once the location of a large production center of
tiles and pottery. There was also a sanctuary dedicated to the supreme
god Jupiter, to Vesta, and to a local goddess named Hludana.
The factory was to continue its production after the legion had left.

A similar production center was situated at an unknown site
across the
Rhine. Soldiers of the Tenth were also employed in a stone quarry in
the
valley of the Moselle, which was far outside the province of Germania
Inferior.
Several inscriptions attest that soldiers were active in Voorburg,
Neuss,
Gellep,
and nearby Xanten,
but the evidence is meager.

Tile of the Leg(io) X G[emina], from Vienna

When in 89 the governor
of Germania Superior, Lucius Antonius Saturninus, revolted against the
emperor Domitian,
the army of Germania Inferior (I
Minervia, VI Victrix, X Gemina, XXII
Primigenia) hurried to the south, to Mainz,
and defeated the rebel. Every legion was awarded the title Pia
Fidelis
Domitiana ('faithful and loyal to Domitian'). The last part of this
honorific title was dropped when this emperor was murdered in 96.

He was succeeded by an old senator
named Nerva,
who appointed the governor of Germania Inferior, Trajan,
as his successor. He was in Cologne
when he heard the news of Nerva's death (98), but did not return to
Rome
immediately. Instead, he seems to have ordered the reconstruction of
the
frontier zone of the Lower Rhine. Soldiers of the Tenth rebuilt several
forts (e.g., Dormagen
and Leiden-Roomburg)
and constructed a dike along the Rhine. All these activities can dendrochronologically
be dated to the first years of Trajan's reign (the trees were felled in
99/100). Probably, the renaming of Xanten and Nijmegen
-henceforth Colonia Ulpia Traiana and Ulpia Noviomagus-
and
the building of a new temple at Elst,
dedicated to the military god Hercules Magusanus, are related to this
project.

Burial inscription of
an officer of the Tenth legion Gemina, from Wien. It was later
used in a mill.

Now that the frontier zone was improved, the Romans could transfer
military units, and in 103, the tenth legion was first moved to
Aquincum
(modern Budapest) in Pannonia, only to be transferred to Vindobona
(Vienna) after the war (in 114?). In both towns, X Gemina had to defend
the Danube
frontier. Both towns belonged to the province of Pannonia. These
movements must have had something to do with Trajan's Second Dacian war
(105-106), but there is still no evidence for active involvement,
although
one inscription suggests that the Tenth was part of a task force with I
Minervia and VI Victrix from Bonn
and Neuss.

During the reign of Hadrian,
a subunit was sent to Judaea
to fight against the messianic
claimant Simon
ben Kosiba, whose rebellion lasted from 132 to 136. Similar
subunits were sent to Mauretania during the reign of Antoninus
Pius (138-161) and to the east to take part in the Parthian
war of Lucius
Verus (162). During the reign of Marcus
Aurelius, the tenth legion fought against the Quadi. (This emperor
died in the legion's city Vindobona, in 180.) A base has been
identified at Mušov in Czechia.

In the civil war after the assassination of the emperor Publius
Helvius Pertinax in 193, the legion sided with the governor of
Pannonia
Superior, Lucius
Septimius Severus. It seems that a subunit was sent to the east to
take part in his wars against his rival Pescennius
Niger and the Parthians, but the inscription that is used to prove
this activity (from Ankara) may refer to another Parthian war. During
the
reign of Severus, several soldiers of the tenth legion were transferred
to the imperial guard in Rome.

Head of a man with a helmet and the
letters "X
G[emina]", from Wien

In the third century, the tenth legion received several surnames, which
suggest its loyalty to the emperors Caracalla
or Heliogabalus
(211-217 or 218-222; Antoniniana), Gordian
III (238-244; Gordiana), Decius
(249-251; Deciana), Florianus
(276; Floriana), and Carinus
(283-285; Cariniana). From this set of rulers, Caracalla,
Decius,
and Carinus waged Germanic wars. Gordian III is known for a war against
the Sasanian
dynasty in Persia, and may have used a subunit of X Gemina. Why
Florian,
who ruled for a mere 88 days and never left Asia Minor, would award an
honorific to a unit that was stationed on the banks of the Danube, is
unknown.

In 235-238, X Gemina may -like neighboring units- have taken part in
the emperor Maximinus'
wars in Dacia and southern Germania. However, evidence is completely
lacking,
and perhaps it is no coincidence that we do not know about a surname Maximiniana.
During the conflict between the emperor Gallienus
(260-268) and his rival Postumus
of the Gallic
Empire, the legion certainly supported the first-mentioned, for
which
it was rewarded with surnames like Pia VI Fidelis VI ('six
times
faithful and loyal'). This proves that it was awarded the titles Pia
II Fidelis II to Pia V Fidelis V in the 164 years between
Domitian
and Gallienus, but we have no idea when this happened.